Beautiful reader, How do you welcome guests — be they family, friends or lovers — into your home? How do you make yourself and others feel safe and snug in your inner sanctum? I greet the morning, afternoon and nightfall, and all the luminous folx I invite into my physical orbit during the course of the day, with a cup of ginger shaah. I prepare this beverage with soft-soft-softness in the best sense, meaning I season this shaah with all the love and generosity available to me. It seems so nugatory on paper, the ceremonial preparation of this shaah, but the pleasure it elicits in the recipient is exhilarating to witness.
My beloved soul brother, John, once told me that if you want to lead a happy life, do something for others. To which his mother, Isabel, added the proviso that contentment — as opposed to 'happiness', which is too necessarily fleeting — is the cheat code to multidimensional self-actualization and fulfillment.
In my case, this journey begins with ginger shaah served in a Monsters Inc mug, whilst the cleansing scent of myrrh lends the raw-rainy-humid-hail-saturated English summer the texture of a paradisal day on the pillow-white beaches of Bosaaso or Baraawe. Beloved reader, I hope your days are sublime dreamscapes where contentment — and plenty of ginger shaah — are being served in every corner. With love,
Diriye
Image by DIRIYE OSMAN.
Song to enjoy with a cup of shaah: 'Magnetic' by FULL CRATE featuring SUSAN CAROL and SERGIIO.